KangGURU
Travels to
Padang in January 2005
Kevin traveled to West Sumatra to present a Teacher
Workshop in Sijunjung. Then he went to Padang to visit Padang
FM and the Australian Studies Centre at Andalas University.
Kevin also met with Pak Hafit who is working with WSLC,
an AusAID activity, in West Sumatra. In Padang Kevin met with a special
group of tsunami aid workers based at the Hotel Batang
Arau - people from Surf Aid and Sumatran Safaris with financial support
from AusAID January 19th
to 22nd, 2005
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I flew to Padang at midday and was met at the airport
by Pak Afrizal and his wife Sri. They were both Australian
Development Scholarship students in Perth and only returned
to Indonesia last August. Afrizal studied Civil Engineering. His wife
studied Education Administration. Sri remembers me when she met me
at IALF Jakarta several years ago. She has a good memory and I don't!
They live in Solok, about two hours north of Padang. Solok is a country
town and being in the mountains, it is cool and fresh. Even the rivers
and creeks are clean there. Afrizal works in Sijunjung which is about
one hour from Solok. He is not an English teacher but he and his wife
did tell his teacher friends about KGRE and about KGRE's teacher workshops.
As a result, a KGRE Teacher Workshop was held at SKB Sijunjung on
January 20th, 2005. It is amazing how the word spreads
and how people find out about the activities of KGRE where ever they
live. |
In the late afternoon I met with
Pak Hafit (far right) from the Solok Dinas Kesehatan. He and his fellow
staff are working together with WSLIC,
an AusAID project, on activities in their area. The development of
systems and facilities for clean water and sanitation is their primary
goal and it was really good to hear him talking about their efforts.
Listen to KGRE in April/May to hear him explaining the work they are
doing. WSLIC is also working with Dinas Kesehatan in nearby Sijunjung
and several other locations in West Sumatra.
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The Sijunjung workshop started at exactly 9.00am and
was officially opened by Drs. Burhasman, Head of the local education
office. There were 70 participants and they were one of the most active
groups I have ever worked with. |
The workshop was organized by Pak Syafrial,
Principal of SMKN 1 (SMEA) Sawahlunto Sijunjung and his Assistant Principal.
They were attentive and responsive. It was a fun day and their questions
were really good. Of course teachers in Sijunjung have similar problems
to teachers all over Indonesia - many students who are not really keen
to study English, large classes, lack of teaching materials and facilities
such a tape players, and school administrations that don't always support
them in their work. KGRE tries to help with several of these problems
especially teaching materials and ways to motivate and interest students
in the subject of English.
| In Sijunjung the teachers have decided to help themselves
by forming an English Teachers' Association. With encouragement from
Drs Syafriyal, Deputy Principal of SMA SMKN 1 (SMEA) Sawahlunto they
discussed this formation at the end of the workshop and are planning
their first meeting for late January. Associations like this provide
an excellent forum to discuss teaching and curriculum AND for sharing
ideas and information. Good Luck to all of the teachers from Sijunjung.
It was nice to meet and work with you all. |
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Late in the afternoon I met with 60 students from the
Sinjunjung area. They were so quiet to begin with but after an hour
or so they were full of questions and comments. It is always interesting
to me that students take so long to 'get going'. Once they do however
there is no stopping them. Thanks to the teachers and the students
of Sijunjung - a great day indeed. I think we may have a new Connection
Club in the making there too.
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On Friday January 21st I went back down the
mountain to Padang. Afrizal and his family took me to Padang and on
the way we saw houses and local tourist places which I found very
interesting indeed. We stopped at afew shops and looked for little
things that I could take back to Bali. |
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On Friday January
21st I went back down the mountain road to Padang. Mid-afternoon
I went to Padang FM
This radio station was the very first private radio station in the
KGRE network. They joined way back in 2001 and it is great that
they are still with us. I was accompanied by Yasrul, a student in
Padang and Mbak Wulan who works at the Universitas Undalas in the
Australian Studies centre. Wulan was also preparing for her IELTS
and ADS interviews which were to be held the next day - good luck
Wulan. She was also an AIYEP student back in 2001 so she has had
quite a bit of experience with Australia. |
Padang FM staff members, Asrul, Yusuf, Fadli and Windi S, were there
to meet me. We discussed their new interactive program due to start soon
with Pak Herman as the presenter. It was a fun meeting and we really discussed
a lot of things. Thanks once again to Padang FM for their support of KGRE
over the past 4 years. In the late afternoon Pak Jadwal Djalal, General
Manager of Padang FM, came to my hotel for further discussions. It was
good to meet him and we talked about many things including his difficult
search for sponsorship.
On Saturday morning a friend of KGRE, Yusral (far left
of left photograph) from Padang, accompanied me to the ANDALAS University
for a meeting at the Australian Studies Centre.
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There were 16 students at the meeting and thanks to Wulan Fauzanna for
organizing the meeting Wulan was an AIYEP participant in 2001 and was
also due to be interviewed for an ADS the next day. That was a pretty
good number of students actually as it was a holiday at the university.
The students came into the center on their 'day off'. I really appreciated
that. There were lots of questions and lots of interest in Australia.
Hopefully KGRE can support the center more in the future and there are
plans already for KGRE to return there later in the year for teacher workshops
and student meetings.
While in Padang I stayed at the Batang Arau Hotel and
while there spoke with Chris, the Manager. She and many of her friends
are deeply involved in helping the tsunami victims on Nias and other nearby
islands. AusAID has provided around $80,000 to help SURF
AID and Sumatran
Safaris to get materials and supplies from Padang to the islands
by boat. Read all about the work these people are doing by clicking onto
their websites. You will also get a fascinating insight into the problems
being faced by tsunami victims and communities. KGRE has assisted by sending
500 packages to students on the islands and distributed by the guys at
Sumatran Safaris. The packages include 2 buku tulis, pencils, erasers,
sharpeners, stickers, magazines, and a box of colored pencils.
I flew to Jakarta later that day. As I flew out from
Padang we flew over the site of the new Minang International Airport.
It looked rather fantastic and should be open later this year.
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Friends Helping Friends
in Padang
Check this excerpt from the website dated Jan. 21st -
http://www.sumatransurfariis.com/update0125.html
On the 19th, we got a chance
to speak further with Dr. Kerry Sieh, and his information is just
astonishing. Kerry, an American geologist, came into the hotel to
visit and say thanks for delivering the helicopter fuel out to them
last week. He said they couldn't have gone on without it and it was
huge that we did it for them. Yeah!! We get stoked when we hear feedback
like that.
As we mentioned in previous updates, Dr. Kerry has been checking his
instruments placed on the islands for the last 2 weeks, which register
earth movements and activity in its tectonic plates. While at the
hotel, he showed us his latest photos and reports.
In the northwest point of Simeulue, there is brand new land. The quake
caused the earth to rise so the outer islands and northwest Simeulue
mainland are now much larger. Northwest Simeulue is now 1.5 meters
higher, which obviously increases the total surface area of the island.
The water line has increased approximately 300 - 400 meters from where
the beach used to be. Imagine the magnitude of this across the entire
island.
Dr. Kerry reports that the earthquake was a result of approximately
200 years of gradual sinking of the plate. When it popped back up,
it caused the tsunami. The land rose before the tsunami hit. If it
had not risen as much as it did, the tsunami would have been much
bigger. The rising of the reef and exposure of so much more land made
the tsunami weaker (weaker than it could've been anyway) when it hit
the villages.
The effects are enormous. Swamps that were just beyond the beach are
now much further inland because of the uplifting, and they are beginning
to dry out. One coral head measuring 2 meters in diameter, and weighing
more than a ton, was flipped completely over by the tsunami. The northeast
section of Simeulue has was uplifted as well, but not as significantly
as the northwest side, experiencing approximately 25 cm of uplifting.
In Nias, Kerry documented a watermark on a mosque, which was 4.2 meters
(13.8 feet) above the ground. There are trees about 100 meters off
the coast of Sirombu (west side of Nias) growing out of the water.
Many are live coconut trees that will die soon because of the salt
water, but as of now they look quite crazy just growing out there.
Kerry thinks this might be a result of the earth kind of liquefying
and sliding into the sea. He is not sure about this, but he cannot
think of any other reason.
Sometimes we are not able to communicate Kerry's findings clearly
as well as he can, as it is very technical stuff. J But you can check
out his site at http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/sumatra
(if it prompts you for a username and password), you can just click
Cancel to get through to the site). More specifically, you can check
Kerry's direct findings in his online journal here: http://today.caltech.edu/today/story-display.tcl?story%5fid=5903. |
Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia
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